According to Buddhism, human beings and all living things are self-created or self-creating. The universe is not homocentric; it is a co-creation of all beings. Buddhism does not believe that all things came from one cause, but holds that everything is inevitably created out of more than two causes.

The creations or becomings of the antecedent causes continue in time-series—past, present and future—like a chain. This chain is divided into twelve divisions and is called the Twelve Divisioned Cycle of Causations and Becomings. Since these divisions are interdependent, they are called Dependent Production or Chain of Causation. The formula of this theory is as follows: From the existence of this, that becomes; from the happening of this, that happens. From the non-existence of this, that does not become; from the non-existence of this, that does not happen.